Amazonia: Relatos de Abundancia

There is a map that cannot be found in geography books. A map made of resistances, ancestral memories, forests crossed by invisible knowledge, rivers like veins of the world. This marks the beginning of Amazonia: Relatos de Abundancia, the new project by artist Sergio Racanati, awarded the XIV edition of the Italian Council, aimed at expanding the permanent collection of the MAN museum.

The project, promoted by Centro Itard Lombardia, the Region of Puglia, and The Emily Harvey Foundation of New York, stands as a profound reflection on the environmental, cultural, and political dynamics currently shaping the Amazon. A symbolic place, understood as a living, collective body, traversed by contradictions and potentials, wounds, and hopes.

Relatos de Abundancia is the continuation of an investigation initiated by Sergio Racanati in 2021 with the project DEBRIS/DETRITI, supported by a previous grant from the Ministry of Culture. In this new phase, the exploration expands and becomes collective, involving indigenous artists from the Colombian Amazon and delving into decolonization practices not only in content but also in the methods and relationships the project activates.

The final work is an artist’s film that serves as a narrative device capable of intertwining testimonies, visions, and cosmogonies. A layered story that brings together indigenous voices and Western perspectives, aiming to dismantle cultural hierarchies, deconstruct stereotypes, and propose a new shared imagination. Through interviews with activists, political and cultural representatives from local communities, the project weaves an intercommunity dialogue seeking common ground to discuss belonging, justice, and equity.

In this context, the MAN wholeheartedly embraces the project, recognizing its strong vocation for building a shared thought, capable of questioning the relationship between humanity and the environment, the legacy of indigenous cultures, and the need to think beyond the Western paradigm.